From the Happiest Place on Earth to America's 1st Theme Park

Knotts Scary Farm

Paradise pier (Note: Stock photo from July 20th)

Most tourists usually use Disneyland as a hub and center of their vacation in SoCal as they travel to other SoCal destinations from there (unless they have a hotel in Los Angeles). As a local however, I did things a lot different this past October 4th. Since 2009, I've made the trip to Knotts for their Halloween Haunt event and usually has me going there close to 5pm for my pre scare dinner. This year, I did something that I wanted to do: Go to Knotts FROM Disneyland.

http://www.rideart.org

Anaheim has a transportation line for its "Resort area" called the Anaheim Resort Transportation (known as ART) and it serves as a connection to the local destinations around Anaheim and some of the neighboring cities in the county. 2 years ago, they extended a line to Buena Park which connects Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm (Line 18). Because of the nature of the line's route, it doesn't operate too long only operating for 12 hours (9am-9pm with a 4 hour break). Using it to my advantage, my parents dropped me off in the morning at Disneyland before they opened at 8am and it was really different compared to the days that I only be there till 6:30. I had to cram everything that I wanted to do at Disney before I had to go catch the shuttle to Knotts. Once I did everything I wanted to do, I went to the Disneyland Transportation plaza, got my ART ticket and boarded the shuttle to Knotts which went on the Freeway after making its stop around Anaheim. Arrived at Knotts 25 minutes after I boarded the shuttle.

I can easily see the difference in both theme park destinations. Knotts is more tailored to the locals of SoCal with its cheap prices and short hours compared to Disneyland which caters to both locals and tourists. But Knotts has historical roots in its community having started out as a simple berry stand then turned Chicken Dinner restaurant then turned theme park after Walter Knott gated his property and charged admission in the late 60s.

Knotts Scary Farm was the first halloween event in a theme park and remains the largest one in the world. A lot of other halloween events can trace their origins to Halloween Haunt.

This year, I did every maze plus the new Special Ops: Infected Zombie Game which was my main objective of the night and enjoyed "The Hanging" which lampoons a lot of random movies and world events. It was a fun day at both Theme Park Destinations.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New School, Same City

I'm a college student and after deciding to find another school (I was getting nowhere with El Camino), I stumbled upon Westwood College, a collection of colleges around the country that specializes in several career programs. Knowing I had talent in art in some forms, I decided to go as a Game Art Major. Originally wanting to go to the campus in Torrance (its closer to home), I decided to go to the campus in Anaheim for several reasons: 1.) My sister goes to that campus so she can ease me into the school system. 2.) Proximity to Disneyland which is down the street. I was initially nervous at first because the college runs different. There are no semesters, there are terms that last 9 weeks each. That can put a lot of pressure since work needs to be done in that short amount of time. But the first term was easy (and as its said, the first term is the only easy term you'll ever get). As the months went on, several teachers made me realize that I had talent that I didn't ev
Read more

Random act of Kindness

Its not just the Cast Members that make the magic, another park guest can make magic as well! This was a couple of weeks ago on a Thursday afternoon at Paradise Pier at the Games of the Boardwalk. On rare occasions, I'll play a game or 2 at the Games of the Boardwalk just for fun with no intent on winning anything. I was playing the game that involved shooting water at a target to get a fireman clown to the top and whoever gets up first either wins a Dumbo or Timothy depending on how many players. It was on this Thursday afternoon that I, by luck won the game and I got a Dumbo out of it. One of the players was a little girl who went back to her family afterwards. She wasn't crying or anything and seem to not have minded losing. The group was about to leave when I made a decision. There was 2 factors in making the decision that I made: 1.) I played the game 3 years ago and won a Dumbo already 2.) I figured I'd make someones day if they get a random surprise from someon
Read more